In 1881 Viipuri's Finnish parish was divided between the city and the surrounding rural municipality. The old church of the parish was left to the rural parish. The city parish needed a new church, which was built by Carl Eduard Dippell between 1889 and 1893 in Gothic Revival style.[citation needed]
Viipuri was heavily bombarded during the Winter War. The altar side of the cathedral was hit by a bomb on 3 February 1940. Finland lost the city to the Soviet Union in the Moscow Peace Treaty, but conquered it back during the Continuation War in 1941. The cathedral had been partly dismantled by the Russians and the Finns didn't start to repair it during the war. In 1944 Viipuri was again lost to the Soviet Union and the cathedral was fully torn apart after the war.[citation needed]
^Häkkinen, Kaisa (30 October 2015). Spreading the Written Word: Mikael Agricola and the Birth of Literary Finnish. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. p. 6. ISBN978-952-222-755-3.